Two Quick Things.

First off, greetings m’lord, how’s the fog and rain? Not sure what caused the rather large influx of visitors from the U.K., but I’m not complaining. Some of my fondest memories occurred on the British Isles.

Of course, that’s not enough to warrant a post, so….

Progressives, liberals, or whatever you prefer to call yourselves. Can we please get off Ahmed Mohamed‘s underage dick?

He built a clock. Yeah, the school’s response was idiotic, especially since they knew damn well it wasn’t a bomb (cause if they actually would have any doubts, you can bet the school would have been evacuated and the bomb squad called in to make sure), but it isn’t like this is the first time a school has responded idiotically to a zero threat situation. Yeah, a lot of the stories the right’s outrage machine cranks out are false. Kids don’t get suspended for reading the Bible, or praying silently at their desk. But a girl did get strip searched over an Advil and a kid did get suspended for chewing his Pop Tart into a gun like shape. I don’t remember either of them getting invitations to the White House, though the right did admittedly try to make the Pop Tart Bandit into a poster child for something or other. (Which was every bit as ridiculous as the left making the Clock kid into a celebrity.)

Let’s be honest.

Photo provided by the Irvine, Texas, Police Department of the digital clock that 14-year-old Ahmed Mohammed made from a pencil case.

That is awesome. When I was 14, if I would have built something like that I would have been proud as well, and I would have also wanted to show it off. But in a post-9/11 America, where people are on edge and taught to report any unattended package, can you kinda understand how someone may look at that and get a bit freaked out? Hell, first time I saw the picture, with no background information, I thought it was a fake bomb. I would have still brought it in to show my science teacher, but I first would have explained to him/her what I was bringing in before hand.

Was the school’s response colored by a healthy dose of Islamophobia? Yeah, probably. Is it sad that we live in a country where I would urge any young person, no matter their race or religion, not to bring an awesome science project to school if anyone could possibly mistake it for a bomb? Yep, definitely. National paranoia doesn’t make us safer, just less free. Depending on racial/religious profiling to prevent terrorism just increases the likelihood that the people behind the next attack don’t fit into those categories. Protip: Not every Islamic terrorist looks like the stereotypical Islamic terrorist. Do you think they can’t read or listen to the news? That they are unaware that we pay special attention to those who “look terroristy?”That all, or even most terrorists are Islamic? *cough*OklahomaCity*cough*

Ahmed Mohammed never should have been put in handcuffs. The school’s reaction was insane. But all “zero tolerance” policies are insane, just like mandatory minimum sentences are insane. But he isn’t a “hero,” just another victim of the “zero tolerance” society we are creating. I’m reluctant to do any victim blaming here, because I am far from convinced the school would have had the same reaction if he would have been Christian and white.

So yeah, feel free to continue bitching about a “zero tolerance” system that routinely treats kids like criminals for nothing. But get off this kid’s dick already. He’s underage.

About the Author

Described as "intelligent but self-destructive," Foster Disbelief spent his twenties furiously attempting to waste his potential in a haze of religion and heroin. Science and atheism allowed him to escape his twin addictions and he now spends his days attempting to make the most of his three remaining brain cells.